Rod Gilfry and Carmen Cusack will meet across a crowded room in the national tour of the Tony-winning Lincoln Center Theater revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific.

Rod Gilfry and Carmen Cusack

Tony-winning director Bartlett Sher will again helm the sprawling production, which is scheduled to launch Sept. 18 at San Francisco's Golden Gate Theatre. Performances will play through Oct. 25 prior to embarking on a nationwide tour.

Grammy-nominated opera singer Gilfry, who appeared as Lancelot in the recent Ravinia staging of Camelot, will star as Emile de Becque opposite Cusack (Elphaba in the national tour of Wicked) as Ensign Nellie Forbush.

Director Sher earned a Tony Award for his staging of the revival of the World War II-era musical, which began performances on Broadway March 1, 2008, and opened to critical acclaim April 3, 2008. Originally conceived for the thrust stage of the Vivian Beaumont Theater, the touring production will be reconfigured for the proscenium stage. The Lincoln Center Theater production has musical staging by Christopher Gattelli, sets by Michael Yeargan, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Donald Holder and sound by Scott Lehrer. The new production also features original orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett and dance and incidental music arrangements by Trude Rittmann.

South Pacific earned seven 2009 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical, Best Director, Best Scenic Design, Best Costumes, Best Lighting, Best Sound and Best Actor for its original star Paolo Szot.

Based on James Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of short stories "Tales of the South Pacific," the musical focuses on French plantation owner Emile de Becque and his love interest, Nellie Forbush, a naïve young nurse from Arkansas. Set against the backdrop of the Second World War, South Pacific offers a lushly romantic score while challenging audiences with themes of racial intolerance and bigotry.

The Rodgers and Hammerstein score includes numerous American songbook classics, including "Some Enchanted Evening," "Wonderful Guy," "Younger Than Springtime," "Happy Talk," "Bali H'ai" and "There Is Nothing Like a Dame." South Pacific, starring Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, won nine Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for its Broadway debut in 1949. Kelli O'Hara and Paolo Szot opened the acclaimed 2008 Lincoln Center revival.